"No clicks have been recorded on your blog yet." What's it mean?

My stats page displays the message, "No clicks have been recorded on your blog yet." The stats also display a record of visitors who've viewed the "About" page and several of my posts. If the stats don't count my visits to the site, who are these ghostly visitors who appear without clicking?

As for that question, there are a LOT of reasons. Blogging and the social internet basically arose because people weren't getting satisfying social experiences in their real lives, and let's face it, pre-existing identities are constraining. Oscar Wilde said, "Give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth".

But I know of several university papers on the subject and have lectured on it myself at MentalHealthCamp. The short answer is: because they don't have to make money from it, so it doesn't need to be traceable.

Aha! In my case, I hope to attract real estate business from my blog, so I've had to identify myself. But I can't shrug off the feeling that there's more to it than that. Facebook and other social networking sites aren't anonymous. What's different about the blog space?

What's different about blogs? Blogs predate those other social networking sites. The tradition is pseudonymity. Real names are new, and came along with commercialization and using the Web for professional promotion, ie Follow Me On Twitter For All Your Sushi Catering Needs etc.

Also, I heard something very smart from developers. Once the dot-com boom started, people developing these systems realized they could make real money at it. But they couldn't make real money if nobody knew they were responsible. So they built right into the system the use of real names, because that's the only thing that made sense for achieving what THEY wanted, which was a rep as "the guy who invented Zombo.com" or whatever commercial app it was.

Also, you have the conspiracy theories about the government wanting to track us all online. Which I for one believe. Facebook didn't spring fully-formed from the head of the Zuckster.

Also, cast your mind back to the days of the pamphleteers, people like Jonathan Swift (who used a good half-dozen pseudonyms). They used those names so they didn't get shunned, beaten, or arrested for speaking truth to power. And it is the same now, in the blogosphere. Many major free speech advocates have used pseudonymity and blogs to get around government restrictions and tell hard truths, truths the mainstream media either has chosen not to report or of which it is unaware.

Thanks, for the thoughtful answers, raincoaster. I grew up in a different era. I was taught that when you speak out against authority, you have an obligation to do so in your own name and take whatever consequences may ensue. That, I've always thought, was the moral of the Socrates story: taking responsibility for your actions, and the example that sets for others.

That era ended when Echelon came in. And then the Patriot Act, etc. And also, it was only ever confined to comfortable countries. You can ask anyone in Egypt how speaking truth to power works for them.

Let's just say I believe that there is no moral imperative for you to take action in a way that can be traced to you by a vindictive authority. That belief? Is handy only if you ARE a vindictive figure of authority. And the United States of America couldn't have been founded by people who put their real names to the notes and pamphlets they published, because they would have been hanged.

Thanks. I wasn't trying to be flippant, though it looks like that.
Angela, the smile-face thing, is what determines a hit on your stats: how many people have looked at your blog. If Angela loads, it's a hit.

Also in the stats we can see things that people have clicked on while they are on your/my site. But when someone clicks a link out of your blog it won't add to your stat count.

1. Contrary to what raincoaster says, above, the Clicks page of my stats seems to count clicks on links going to other areas of my site, as well as links going outside my site. Is that correct?

2. If a visitor lands on my site, is that a "view?" If so, how would it be distinguised from a post "view?" How is a post "view" determined?

3. WP has a note on the stats page, saying, "...we don't count your own visits to your blog." But WP DOES count my visits when I'm NOT logged in. In fact, I think that all the "views" appearing in my stats during the four weeks of my blog's existence, have been of the latter kind. There is no smiley on my blog, and I'm doubtful it is counting visitors. What should I do? My theme is INOve.

WP has a note on the stats page, saying, "...we don't count your own visits to your blog." But WP DOES count my visits when I'm NOT logged in

That is correct. It is only when you are logged in that wordpress.com knows that it's you.

If a visitor lands on my site, is that a "view?" If so, how would it be distinguised from a post "view?" How is a post "view" determined?

A view is a view on your home page, your page pages, your category pages or tag pages or archive pages or search result pages. Page views (a real page that is) and post views are separated in the stats, views of the home or category or tag or archive pages are not, but they are counted in the total.

Clicks page of my stats seems to count clicks on links going to other areas of my site, as well as links going outside my site. Is that correct?
A click is a outgoing click or an internal click that brings up a media file (e.g. an image). Click on links to other posts/pages do not count.

How do the stats distinguish a post "view?" There are multiple posts on my home page. How does stats know which one a visitor is "viewing?" Does the visitor have to click on the "Read more..." link for a post "view" to register, for example? What's the secret?

How can I confirm that visitors' views are, in fact, being counted by the little gremlins in my stats department?

A view on your home page is a view in the total number of views but not a post view, as in "Most viewed posts". A post view is a view looking at
blogname.wordpress.com/year/month/day/post-name. So yes, unless the reader clicks the Read More link this is not a post view. It is just a view that shows up in your total count.

There is no way to really confirm that all visitors are in fact accounted for, and if you install a separate counter, e.g. sitemeter.com or statcounter.com you are likely to get different results from the wordpress.com stats.

And for the record, visitors leaving spam comments that are caught by Akismet are also counted, as far as I know.

Thanks, husdal. I just belatedly read Support > Traffic > Stats, which I should have done before asking all these questions. Your comments have been helpful, nevertheless, as they flesh out the offical explanation.

According to that official explanation, a "view" is recorded "Every time a visitor views a URL on your blog." That is explicated further, as follows:

"Why don’t post/page views add up to total views?
Post/page views are included in total views, but there are many views to your site that are not a post or page URL. The front pages, category/tag/date/author archives, and searches are all examples of other views that only count towards total views."

You don't? Clicks are important in telling you whether your content is interesting enough for people to click on, e.g. your images/files or links to other sites that you have posted about. Are you able to capture your readers? If you have links, but no clicks, then obviously your blog is not that interesting at all.